written by CNS staff
Thursday December 6, 2012
SANTA ANA - A soccer coach and martial arts instructor who molested 10 boys and one girl over a five-year span in Orange County was sentenced today to almost 300 years in prison.
Luis Alberto Pineda, 31, received the maximum punishment of 298 years and six months to life in prison. Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King also ordered Pineda to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Four of the boys he sexually assaulted asked the judge to give Pineda a lengthy prison term. Two did so in letters to the judge that were read aloud and two others did so in person.
"I want Luis to stay away from my life so I can move on and have a better life,'' one of the boys said.
"What I want is Luis Pineda to be in jail for everything he's done so he ... doesn't hurt anybody else, no boy, no girl,'' another boy said. ``Just keep him in jail, that's it.''
Another boy said in a letter to the judge, ``I felt bad for what (the defendant) did to me and my brothers.''
The boy said Pineda deserved ``payback'' for his crimes.
"And by payback I mean another 100 years in jail so you won't hurt anyone else,'' the victim added.
Another boy said he wanted Pineda to ``think of all the bad things you did to us'' while in prison.
The mother of one of the victim said, with the help of a translator, that Pineda ``defrauded'' the trust parents placed in him.
"I put my son in a sport to keep him away from the dangers in the street, without thinking the danger was precisely in front of him,'' the mother said.
King recalled how the father of one of the victims broke down as he testified that when his son said he didn't want to play soccer anymore that he ordered him to return to the team.
The judge referred to Pineda as a ``wolf in sheep's clothing.''
When the father testified during the trial about making his kid go back to playing soccer, ``He realized that he sent that child back to the wolf and he broke down... Those moments best describe what happened in this case.''
At one point, King had a sheriff's deputy take two of the boys who were victims out of the courtroom so the judge could describe in detail one of Pineda's sex acts.
"I can't describe it in words other than rats do not do that to their children. Vultures do not do that to their children,'' King said.
Pineda did not make a statement and his attorney, Alex Perez, declined comment after the hearing. As he requested a lesser sentence, Perez noted Pineda had no prior criminal record.
Pineda was a martial arts assistant instructor at Moo Yea Do Martial Arts in Fullerton for about six years before he started coaching soccer for the North Orange County Youth Soccer Premier League, according to Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Nichols.
Pineda coached the Fullerton Eagles, who practiced at Woodcrest Elementary School in Fullerton and Sycamore Junior High School in Anaheim.
During the trial, an 11-year-old boy tearfully testified that Pineda sexually assaulted him several times when he was 8 years old, including two occasion in the back seat of the defendant's car after soccer practice.
The boy, identified only in court as Anthony, was a goalie on a Fullerton team coached by Pineda. He told his mother he had been molested, and she pulled him out of the soccer program and contacted authorities.
Nichols told jurors that the victims ranged in age from 7 to 15 years old, including one girl, who was 10 years old.
Perez argued the accusers were not telling the truth in an effort to help their families remain in the country as crime victims.
Pineda was convicted of 28 felony counts, including 21 counts of committing lewd acts on a child, and forcible sodomy on a child. Three other felony charges were reduced to misdemeanor simple assault.
Jurors found true sentencing enhancements for multiple victims and substantial sexual conduct with a minor.
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